8/19/14

Voice of the Martyrs, Prisoner Alert: Gao Zhisheng

In 2007, he was arrested and spent over 50 days behind bars where he was tortured. “I was beaten so badly that my whole body began shaking uncontrollably on the floor,” Gao wrote in an open letter.

Gao last reappeared out of police custody in April 2010. He told the Associated Press that he had been shunted between detention centers, farmhouses and apartments across northern China. Security forces repeatedly abused him, beating him with electric batons, pistol-whipping him and holding burning cigarettes close to his eyes.

“Not only is it now extremely difficult for me to make my voice heard, but it is also extremely dangerous,” Gao wrote in an essay in 2009. “In the past three-plus years, the authorities invested a great deal of manpower, physical resources and funds, and employed the most merciless methods, to achieve their goal of silencing me.”

Christian human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng was released from prison on Aug. 7, 2014. His lawyer told BBC News that Gao has been “utterly destroyed” after three years in jail. He is emotionless, “basically unintelligible” and has lost teeth through malnutrition. Gao’s lawyer reported that Gao is “not capable of holding any conversation and there are many occasions where he’s just literally just muttering to himself.” He was first arrested in 2009, and released briefly in 2010 before disappearing shortly afterward. In 2011, state media said he had been jailed again for violating probation rules

Background: Since 2005, Gao has been repeatedly arrested, imprisoned and severely tortured by Chinese authorities, mostly for his human rights work. In 2006, he and a group of prominent human rights lawyers created the Association of Human Rights Attorneys for Chinese Christians. That same year, Gao was sentenced to five years of probation for inciting “subversion of the state.” After serving three years in prison, Gao was supposedly released on probation but he disappeared for extended periods of time.

Search This Blog

Subscribe To This Blog

F.A.I.T.H.

F Is For Forgiveness - Everyone has sinned and needs God's forgiveness (Romans 3:23); God's forgiveness is in Jesus only (Ephesians 1:7)

A Is For Available - God's forgiveness is available for all (John 3:16); But God's forgiveness is not automatic (Matthew 7:21).

I Is For Impossible - According to the Bible, it is impossible to get to Heaven on our own (Ephesians 2:8-9); So how can a sinful person have eternal life and enter Heaven?

T Is For Turn - If you were going down the road and someone asked you to turn, what would he or she be asking you to do? (Change direction); Turn means to repent (being sorry enough to not want to do it again and being committed to that); Turn away from sin and self (Luke 13:3); Turn to Jesus alone as your Savior and Lord (John 14:6); Here is the greatest news of all (Romans 10:9-10); What happens if a person is willing to repent of their sins and confess Christ?

H Is For Heaven - Heaven is a place where we will live with God forever (John 14:3); Eternal life begins now with Jesus (John 10:10)

H can also stand for how...How can a person have God's forgiveness, eternal life and Heaven? The Biblical answer is: repenting of your sins and trusting in Jesus as your Savior and Lord. Trust in what He did and not on your own works. Good works comes as a result of your faith in God, not in order to get to Heaven. You can't save yourself. Only Jesus and what He did for us (by dying on the cross and rising from the dead) can save us. Make the commitment for Christ today. Don't push it off. He will meet you where you are at in life. He will take care of the rest. He loves you and wants you to be with Him forever.

F.A.I.T.H. Presentation (Example w/Computerized Video Format)

Mortality

Just to save the confusion: this test is not about good works saving us, for we know that it's only through faith that we are saved. But, it's to show us that we are all sinners in need of God's forgiveness and that only Jesus can save us.

Followers

Revolver Maps (Site Visits)

About Me

JesusIsLordForever is my first blog, a general Christian-focused blog. My second blog is RadForJesus which is similar, but more youth-focused. Laugh Like Jesus is a brand new comedy blog focused on good, clean comedy.